Twitter cracks up over Facebook rebrand

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Facebook's announcement Thursday (Oct 29) that the company would henceforth be called Meta unleashed a torrent of hilarity on Twitter from companies, people and even the social media giant itself.

Here are some highlights of the meme and pun-fuelled wisecracks.

Meat jokes were all the rage, with United States hamburger chain Wendy's tweeting shortly after the news: "Changing name to Meat."

Remaining true to its word, the chain did just that - but only on its Twitter profile.

A user with the handle @NicoTheMemeDude queried: "Is this the beginning of the Meataverse?"

Wendy's retorted: "Very meta."

Meta's newly minted Twitter account, which has already accrued 13.5 million followers, cordially chimed in: "Nice to meat you, @Wendys."

Though Meta will just be the name of the parent company and the app will still be called Facebook, some observers were concerned.

"How can you tell anyone that you're on Meta. Sounds like a drug," wrote @careaware.

"Why did Facebook pick 'Meta'? 'Meh' was taken," wrote @maxgoff.

For lots of people, meta will forever describe something that refers back to or is about itself, like a film about people making a film about film-making.

"Everyone posting about Facebook on Twitter is very... meta," wrote @JohnRush32.

Despite the jokes, Facebook's critics were not amused by the name change, which they argued dodges the real issue.

"The name was never the problem," wrote an activist group calling itself The Real Facebook Oversight Board.